Silesian cuisine belongs to the region of

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

. It is a subtype of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

cuisine with many similarities to and signs of the influence of neighbouring cuisines. The cuisine is particularly renowned for its

poppy seed Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum''). The tiny, kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. It is still widely used in many countries, ...

and

knödel Knödel (; and ) or Klöße (; ) are boiled dumplings commonly found in Central European and East European cuisine. Central European countries in which their variant of ''Knödel'' is popular include Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, ...

dishes.

List of Silesian dishes

* ''Żymła'' - a well-baked

bread roll Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made foo ...

, oval with a division in the middle, topped with poppy seeds, similar to Austrian ''Kaisersemmel. * '' Kluski śląskie/Schlesische Kartoffelklöße'' (Silesian dumplings) - round dumplings served with gravy, made of mashed boiled potatoes, finely grated raw potatoes, an egg, grated onion, wheat flour, and potato flour * ''Schlesisches Himmelreich'' ("Silesian Heaven") - a dish of smoked pork cooked in water with dried fruit and spices * '' Rolada z modrą kapustą'' (rouladen with red cabbage) - best-quality beef-meat roll; stuffed with pickled vegetable, ham, and good amount of seasoning; always served with red cabbage (with fried bacon, fresh onion and allspice); traditionally eaten with ''kluski śląskie'' for Sunday dinner * ''

Szałot Szałot () is a Silesian potato salad. It can be made with diced, boiled potatoes, carrots, peas, ham, various sausages, fish, boiled eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in So ...

'' - a salad made of cubes of boiled potatoes and carrots, peas, ham, various sausages, pickled fish, boiled eggs, seasoned with olive oil or mayonnaise * ''

Kaszanka Kaszanka is a traditional blood sausage in the east and central European cuisine. It is made of a mixture of pig's blood, pork offal (commonly liver), and buckwheat or barley (kasza) stuffed in a pig intestine. It is usually flavored with onion, b ...

''/''Krupniok''/''Grützwurst'' - a type of

blood sausage A blood sausage is a sausage filled with blood that is cooked or dried and mixed with a filler until it is thick enough to solidify when cooled. Most commonly, the blood of pigs, sheep, lamb, cow, chicken, or goose is used. In Europe and the A ...

made of ''

kasha In English, kasha usually refers to pseudocereal buckwheat or its culinary preparations. In various East-Central and Eastern European countries, ''kasha'' can apply to any kind of cooked grain. It can be baked but most often is boiled, either in ...

'' and animal

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...

* '' Żymlok'' - like ''krupniok'' but instead of ''kasha'',

(''żymła'') is used * ''

Wodzionka Wodzianka, wodzionka (), kapłonek or brotzupa is a Silesian and Central Poland bread soup made from stale bread, fat and water or milk. Traditionally, ''wodzionka'' is prepared by soaking two- to three-day-old stale bread in water or broth and ...

''/ ''Brotsuppe'' - soup with

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...

and cubes of dried rye bread * ''

Siemieniotka Siemieniotka is a Silesian soup made of hemp seed, often eaten at the traditional Christmas Eve meal, Wigilia. The name of the dish comes from its main component, seeds (''siemie''). The hemp seeds are cooked, separated from the shells, ground i ...

''/''Hanfsuppe'' - soup made of

hemp seed Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

, a main

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

meal * ''

Knysza Knysza () is a type of fast food, consisting of a bread roll amply filled with a variety of ingredients. The bread is a sliced-in-half sponge cake (''bułka drożdżowa''), sometimes grilled prior, abundantly infilled with a variety of ingredien ...

'' - pita bread filled with meat and cabbage * ''

Moczka Moczka '' otch-kɑ' (otherwise bryja) is a Silesian dish prepared for Christmas. It is prepared from a special type of gingerbread, almonds, raisins, dried plums, dried apricots, pears, dried figs, dried dates, hazelnuts and a large amou ...

''/''Motschka''/''Lebkuchensauce''/''Polnische Sauce'' - a traditional Christmas Eve dessert, its main ingredients are

gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as ...

extract, nuts and dried fruit, strawberry compote, and almonds. * ''

Makówki Makówki ( szl, Makůwki / Makōwki, Lower Silesian language, Lower Silesian: ''Mohn Kließla'', german: Mohnpielen, hu, Mákos guba) is a sweet poppy seed-based bread dessert from Central Europe. The dish is considered traditional in Silesia (s ...

''/''Mohnpielen'' - traditional Christmas Eve dessert, based on finely ground poppy seeds, with raisins, almonds, candied citrus peels, honey, sugar, and pudding, and flavoured with rum * ''

Hauskyjza Hauskyjza ( Silesian: ''home cheese'' from the German ''Hauskäse'') is a foodstuff made of cottage cheese, carum and other ingredients, which are mixed, put aside for a few days to acquire the characteristic sharp flavor, scent and tacky consist ...

'' - strongly flavored, home-made cheese with caraway seeds * ''

Kopalnioki Kopalnioki (English: '' Liquorice'', German: ''Lakritz Bonbons'') is a hard Silesian candy without filling, with a mint- anise taste, common since the end of the nineteenth-century. Ingredients The candy are produced from sugar, anise oil, hy ...

'' - hard candies made of sugar,

anise oil Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to Eurasia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, such as star anise, fennel, licorice, and tar ...

, and the essences of

St John's wort ''Hypericum perforatum'', known as St. John's wort, is a flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae and the type species of the genus ''Hypericum''. Possibly a hybrid between '' H. maculatum'' and '' H. attenuatum'', the species can be found a ...

melissa Melissa is a female given name. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (''mélissa''), "bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (''meli''), "honey". In Hittite, ''melit'' signifies "honey". ''Melissa'' also refers to the plant ''Me ...

, and

peppermint Peppermint (''Mentha'' × ''piperita'') is a hybrid species of mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint. Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in many regions of the world.Euro+Med Plantbas ...

, its black colour comes from

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

food dye. * ''

Streuselkuchen Streuselkuchen (; "crumb cake"), also known in English-speaking countries as crumb cake, is a cake made of yeast dough covered with a sweet crumb topping referred to as streusel. The main ingredients for the crumbs are sugar, butter, and flour, ...

''/''Kołocz śląski'' - made of a yeast dough covered with a sweet crumb * ''Liegnitzer Bombe'' - small chocolate-covered gingerbread cakes filled with marzipan and fruit or nuts, historically a speciality of

Legnica Legnica (Polish: ; german: Liegnitz, szl, Lignica, cz, Lehnice, la, Lignitium) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River (left tributary of the Oder) and the Czarna Woda (Kaczawa), Czarna Woda ...

(Liegnitz)

References

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